Scott Barronton (00:00)
Welcome back to the Sunshine Travelers podcast where we help you travel more and better. In this episode, we're taking you through our first few days in Ireland. From shaking off jet lag with a stop at Cave Hill to exploring Belfast and the Causeway Coast, we discovered some incredible spots and even picked up a new Irish tradition along the way. So grab your passport and let's get started.
Speaker 2 (00:30)
We're Scott and Melissa, The Sunshine Travelers.
Speaker 1 (00:33)
We're all about exploring the world and sharing the journey with you. Whether you're a seasoned traveler, dreaming of your next adventure, or just here for the stories.
Speaker 2 (00:41)
No matter where you are on your travel journey, we've got first-hand experiences, tips, and plenty of inspiration from some of the most amazing places on Earth.
Speaker 1 (00:50)
So buckle up and get ready to travel with us.
Scott Barronton (00:58)
So Melissa, landing in Dublin on the red eye, we were definitely filling it. And I don't think it was jet lag as much as we just didn't get to sleep very comfortably on the plane. Yeah, and thankfully it's a pretty quick flight, right? So I think it's like six hours you looked. I mean, we did have to wait on the plane.
I don't know, it ended up taking off like an hour late out of JFK, like air traffic control problems but we actually still landed on time. So I think a lot of people confuse just being tired with jet lag. And so I would say jet lag is where like then you finally do go to bed and you wake up at completely the wrong times, right? You're waking up in your old time zone and you can't sleep versus like on your first day, like you're literally just gonna be tired. I mean, especially that like maybe on a flight like that you get.
three, four hours of sleep. I mean, if you did that at home, you would be tired the next day too. Yeah. So I think that debate about should I take a nap or just push through? I think that's a real thing. And so we're going to talk a little bit about that because we knew the worst thing that we could possibly do is head straight to the hotel, check in and go to sleep. Yeah. I think originally our plan was to get the car,
⁓ Go to Belfast, see if we could check in the hotel, right? And do some things in the city. But I especially was feeling it. I was sick a couple of weeks ago and then we actually went to Disney last weekend. And I think I was just more tired than usual. And so we actually had a discussion. our two options were really, do we do some things outside the city?
Or do we go into Belfast and go ahead and look? Like our one thing that we were going to do was maybe go see the Titanic Museum. And I think just as tired as we were, we were both like, if we could go do some outside stuff, because it wasn't pouring rain, maybe we would feel better. And so that is what we decided to do. Yeah. So instead of going into Belfast and doing the museum, we made a little detour on the way and stopped at this place called Cave Hill.
Now I had seen mostly in researching for places to take, really good photographs I had seen, pictures of this place. And so we found it on the map. We pulled in there and I think it was the right choice because it got us out into the fresh air. And let me tell you something. If you want to battle jet lag, like we have some really good strategies for battling jet lag.
But the number one thing you can do is to not go in and spend your day indoors, where you're not getting any sunshine, you're not getting any fresh air, Spend as much time as you can outdoors and in the fresh air, and that's gonna help your body. Yeah, I was really so glad that we did this. think too, is because once we really started then looking like, what will we do the next day, which is what we're gonna talk about in a second, we wouldn't have had time to do
And if you've ever hiked in Scotland or Ireland, it's just so different because a lot of places you can just like follow different, trails. And so it was just really neat to you got the view of the city of Belfast. You got the view of the ocean. You got the view of the cave hill, I guess they call it the mountain. And you could see the caves and just people walking.
They also had the Belfast Castle there. We just walked around in the gardens when like we went inside but that was just a beautiful it was just really a beautiful way to start the trip because I was definitely struggling. And by the way you can go inside that Belfast Castle it just happened to be closed on Saturday while we were there they were doing a wedding that evening.
Matter of fact before we left all the guests were starting to show up in their wedding attire so I would say even if you are a city person and you really want to do a lot of stuff in Belfast Or you have several days in Belfast put this on your list Because the people who lived right near there. It's like part of the park and people who lived right there could just walk into it mean, there's tons of places that you can just walk around on the trails and we just
hit like a very small part of it, but you could walk up to kind of the point. I mean, it was like a four mile round trip. So you could really get some good hiking in, even if you were spending a good bit of time in Belfast or let's say you're traveling to Belfast for, business or something like that and had a few hours.
Well after that we left and drove the rest of the way into Belfast in Belfast we're going to be staying at the Belfast Hilton and I don't know about you Melissa but I thought it was perfectly located in the city we were able to walk in to Belfast and have dinner we passed a lot of
neat places to stop and take photos other restaurants and lots of lounges or bars or pubs. were all around that area. and you're close to the water. And so one of the nights when they're lighting up the Titanic museum, you can take a short walk and go see that lit up, but.
I thought the location was great. The hotel was really nice. Yeah, they were having a big outdoor concert. So there was a lot of people walking around. So yes, the hotel was very nice, very convenient. And Scott, I really think so even though we didn't go take a nap, I think it did us wonders to, like you said, get outside and hike. We did get checked in the hotel, got a shower and change clothes. And I think that just makes you feel.
100 million percent better. Yes. Yeah, definitely. So we had asked the concierge for recommendations on somewhere to go and eat for dinner. I would think about doing that maybe in Belfast because the place that they sent us to, we love Indian food, but the place they sent us to was packed. I mean, there was a ton of people in there.
Yeah, was also, I mean, it was a great location. You mentioned walking. so after, going to the hotel and, getting freshened up, it gave us a chance to really see a little bit more of Belfast than just eating at the hotel or going somewhere right beside that because we didn't have a ton of time. So I was like, oh, this actually worked out perfectly because we really did get to see.
so much we ended up walking by, I guess, the city hall, right? Which actually, since Belfast is a big city, like it was a, a big building. And just seeing a lot of stuff that was, going on around town. Well, so tell the story, that you, you talked to the concierge or the guy at the desk the day that we checked out and you were having, conversation about your impressions of Belfast. So,
And even when we sat down to dinner, I said, what did you notice about the city?
I said, we are pleasantly surprised with Belfast. It seems clean. we walked around at night after we had dinner and walked to several places. We came and you actually got your camera out. I mean, there were a few people around, but not like a ton of people. And it really just felt like everybody was just minding their own business. There weren't people there to hassle you for anything. And he said, yeah, he said the city is actually really clean.
He said, you're really going to find more of that, unfortunately, in Dublin, because they maybe get so many more tourists. But he said, their tourist scene has really picked up, even to the point where their regular business travelers have a hard time booking in the summer. But it was just, I mean, I was just surprised. It was clean. Like you could walk around and feel comfortable. I mean, in any city, you're going to, you're going to want to look around and watch around. But we didn't encounter,
Anything and I haven't been in a city where I have felt like that in a long time anywhere in the world so we were eating dinner at This place called Nu Delhi It was an Indian place. It was one of the options that the concierge had given us and We never pass up an opportunity for good
Indian when we're in the UK is kind of like one of our traditions, but we're sitting there at dinner and that's, think that's kind of when the, the true tiredness really starts to kick in, right? You've got good food. I chose to just have a soft drink because for me, if I have a beer or anything like that, I'm immediately like the tiredness is going to kick in.
But we had dinner and then after dinner we decided that we were going to go back to the hotel grab my camera real real quick and go out and see if we could capture some of the night photography Because we had done some research about Where are the best places to take pictures and one of them came up with some options for at night? And so we set out to go and capture that
The Queens Bridge is beautiful lit up at night and so that's definitely if you're a photographer that's something You're going to want to try to capture. I definitely would recommend taking your tripod with you because you're going to need to set that up and do some long exposure stuff. Also in the city, there's some great opportunities to get long exposure with the cars passing by so.
bring your tripod with you and you won't regret it. Yeah, and something else really neat.
So go by City Hall at night if you can, because they do light it up in different colors. And so it actually happened to be lit up for Brazil Day when we were there. Now we didn't know this. We were staying there taking some pictures and this guy spoke to us and asked us where we were from.
He is actually from Brazil and he said he was the honorary Brazilian consulate and he had on his Brazil pin. And so he was telling us it's lit up green and blue today for that. So that was neat. And we chatted with him and talked a little about Brazil. And so that was really neat as well. So the other thing, Scott, you mentioned about the Titanic Museum being lit up and we saw pictures of that and thought, that's going to be so neat. But then when I looked up, I think they only light it up like that once.
it's like 12 times a year. So definitely look because it did look very neat and we didn't make it down quite that far. So the Hilton is kind of on one end because they also do have some like glass window type things that are like pay homage to Game of Thrones and stuff like that. So you could spend a lot more time if you were into museums or wanted to do shopping or that kind of thing. But definitely take a look at the different places to photograph.
Yeah, and if you're in a city where it's safe to do so, make sure to go out and do some night walks because cities really have a very different energy after night. And, you can get some amazing pictures. Yeah, and Scott, real quick, I want to go back to one thing you said about we asked the concierge for dinner recommendations always do that. unless you have a reservation, if you even have something in mind, always ask them.
like for recommendations. They gave us several, but then if they're willing to make them for you, a lot of times they are able to possibly get reservations that you couldn't get on your own just because that relationship that they have with different restaurants and sending people and you had mentioned it was packed out and he had told us just go, they know you're coming. You may have to wait a few minutes, but and it was packed and we just had a little table for two, but that was a great, I don't think we could have gotten in there maybe without.
Yeah, concierge also ask your Uber driver or taxi if you're Flying into an airport and taking an uber taxi to somewhere They'll give you some recommendations and you know, this would be kind of more of the local recommendation and then you can always work with the concierge to try to make those reservations for you
Well, we decided that we were going to go ahead and get a good night's sleep on Saturday so we got in bed kind of early. It wasn't too late and Sunday morning we got up nice and early. We wanted to get our day started. It's going to be a trend for us over the next week because I'm trying to work East Coast hours and so we want to have the mornings to where we can get out and.
kind of rummage around and see different sites in the area. And so we started that on Sunday. And Sunday was really all about adventure. We wanted to go and see some of the filming locations where Game of Thrones was filmed, but mostly because these are some very unique places where
our listeners might be interested in going to. So we wanted to be able to get that content, that we could share with everyone. And I would say rent a car if you can. And I know some people are intimidated about driving on the left-hand side, but I just feel like in Ireland, especially, you can see and do so much.
kind of away from the crowds. There are tours that will take you all kinds of places. I mean, I know you can take a, Game of Thrones tour, or you can go to the Cliffs of Mohr and you can do so many things, but being able to pull off on Overlook, or just go have a meal, just makes such a difference. And if you are a little bit hesitant about that, go check out Tripi Amo They have driving guides about the UK that will like take you through like these simulators.
And yeah, it takes some getting used to, but you can do it. Well, I laugh because in the rental car, there are stickers on the windshield, like right in front of the driver and right in front of the passenger that say drive on left or keep left. And so, they have constant little reminders there for you.
Which side of the road to drive on and it does take a little bit of getting used to now I've driven in UK a lot At this point and so I think I'm more familiar But every time I do have to remind Melissa like I can't keep my eyes on the GPS Like I need your help if they're for in a roundabout and we need to get off on the second exit or third exit like I can't be looking at the GPS to do that I need you to help remind me of that
So it does take some getting used to especially for for us in roundabouts, right? If we have a roundabout, it's usually a single lane Well now you got multiple lanes and multiple roundabouts connected to one another But I will say it's kind of fun trying to figure all that out as well Yeah, and just don't let that deter you like it I mean it just is so rewarding to get to do your own thing Well, even if you just want a cup of coffee
If you're on a tour bus, you gotta wait till you get to the next place. If you're driving yourself, you just pull over at the next coffee stand and grab a cup of coffee. Or if you gotta go to the bathroom, you stop as you want to. So I do think it adds a lot of freedom when seeing a city. And one other quick tip, if you need an automatic or don't wanna, even if you can drive a manual and you don't wanna do a left side drive, you need to book that in advance.
and make sure because they do have a lot of manual transmissions. So just be aware of that as well. Yeah, that's the standard car. When you book a car, you're going to get manual transmission, which was OK with me. It just so happened that this time when we got there, they were out of those vehicles and they didn't have any available at the moment that we got there. And a good tip was
They tried first before they told me they didn't have any. They tried to sell me an upgrade for $10 a day to an automatic. And I was like, no, no, no, I'm, I'm good. I'm fine. And then they were like, well, how about an SUV for $10 a day? like, no, it's just two of us. We don't need a lot of space. And then finally he was like, well, I don't have any of the manuals that you booked. So.
we're gonna give you an upgrade because you're an Emerald executive member. And so it's like, why didn't you just start with the, let's give you an upgrade because you're an executive, right? And so anyhow, hold out if they start trying to sell you an upgrade at first, because it might be that they don't have your vehicle and then they're gonna need to upgrade you anyway. So that's just my little tip.
So we got out and went to our first place. This was fun. It was like a little adventure in getting there because our GPS was telling us to go in one direction, but the signs on the road were telling us to go in another. And so we were trying to find this location called the Dark Hedges. And so we're actually going to give you the scoop of both of that. So the Dark Hedges is actually a filming location from the Game of Thrones.
You might be familiar with it. They were on their horses going through there. Unfortunately, they have experienced some storm damage and a couple of them are broken. But guys, this is a popular, popular place and tours bring tons of people here. So we put it in the GPS. We actually, even though we kept seeing the signs to the dark hedges, to the dark hedges, we continue to follow our GPS. You can't drive down this road for obvious reasons because you want to be able to see it.
I mean, it's enough with just people walking it, how miserable or, I mean, it even wouldn't even look like it if people were able to drive. So we had to park and walk a little bit. And so that actually not in the official parking lot, which in a minute I'll tell you, have to end up paying, but that was the way that we went first. So if you go, I would recommend doing that route and then maybe walking all the way down or part of the way down and then coming back. But again, so for us,
even though we left Belfast pretty early, we had to drive there, et cetera. And there was already lots of people we had read, get there as early as you can. So, I mean, if you're staying close by, definitely go early or go late. I don't know how late people, people go. I mean, it's not like something that's going to be, closed Yeah. So we had a little short walk to get there. As Melissa said, there was tons of people there already. I think a tour bus.
pulled in right as we were, because I had to change out my camera gear and most of a sudden, oh no, a tour bus just pulled in. So there was a ton of people down in there. I would say just be patient and wait because eventually the crowds will ebb and flow and you'll be able to get the picture you wanted.
It was really funny because had my camera and my tripod and I have a really long lens. That I just got before this trip and which was a recommendation is to have a zoom lens for this location and so anyhow I set up and it was for my zoom lens right the the setup that I had was for my zoom lens so it
Way further back than if I had my iPhone, I would have been, 100 yards closer, to set up and take the picture. But because people saw me with my camera and my lens, they automatically were like, that's where I've got to be. And so I had probably 20, 30 people around me at one time trying to take the picture. And I just told them, I was like, hey, look, I'm going to give you some advice.
go about 100 yards closer for your iPhone picture. You're gonna get a much better picture than trying to stand back here where I am with my incredibly long zoom lens. just tried to help people out. And then finally, when we got an opportunity to get in there and get some pictures, there was a couple that was walking down from the other direction. so
I just snapped off a few pictures and as they walked by I said, hey, I got some really good pictures of you. If you'd like, I'll email them to you. And so now we have new friends in Barcelona because they were like, I'm sure it's far better than what we did with our iPhone trying to do a selfie. So sure, we'll take them. So we did scope it out the other side just to see what that was like. So we went.
followed those other signs. So if you wanted to and you wanted to get there earlier, be there late, there is actually a hotel that's right by there. And then there is there. So there's a paid parking lot. So you're going to pay in like five pounds to park there. But there are restrooms inside a coffee shop. You could grab a coffee, a tea, sandwiches, stuff like that. ⁓ I will say that's probably where
more of the people were coming from. And so as we were walking down that we had another, you know, tour group. So just be aware, there's kind of two sides that you can go from there. But I will say that after we were done there, I was like, okay, let's find somewhere where not a lot of people are gonna be, because it's just hard, right? When there's that many people and you wanna take pictures and kind of enjoy,
So we left from there and the next place that we went to is called Kinbane Castle. And you know, after all of those crowds at the dark hedges, this was really a welcome relief and truly felt like a hidden gem. And one of the reasons is because the buses for tourists couldn't go down this road. Yeah, when I saw that, there was like no coaches and I was like, yes.
So a lot of these on the back roads, like it literally became a one lane road where you would have to give way, you know, for somebody coming towards you. So this is actually right outside of Bally Castle. And I want to mention too, what's nice about like doing this is that everything is pretty close together. So you can actually hit a lot of things in the same day. So this was right outside of Bally Castle. And so even though we had told ourselves we were gonna eat around noon, we wouldn't end up.
not having food, know, sometimes we weren't hungry. And so we ended up doing this next. And I will say, I think the other reasons, Scott, that it wouldn't be like really, really popular for tours is because it is a pretty steep, I mean, there's stairs, but it's a pretty steep climb down and a pretty steep climb up. And then...
Also, the other thing too, was that when I looked at it, Google had told me that it was closed, but we were just like, we'll just go and take pictures of it or see, because we're going to be going right by it. But there's nothing there for it to close. I mean, there was a couple of restrooms, but there was no paid parking. There was no entry fee. was no, so I mean, it's just open all the time and it like butts up to somebody's farm. I mean, they have the livestock gate, so you have to go in a gate, that.
that keeps the animals where they're supposed to be. But this was phenomenal. I would say we probably spent, a couple of hours? Like between the walking down and just walking around and photographing the different things. So highly recommend this. We saw maybe not even a dozen people. Yeah, and I really hope you guys appreciate the photos that come out of this because carrying that 15, 20 pounds of camera gear down there to get these photos was a lot.
And so after that we were definitely famished and we just told ourselves like we really need to go grab something because one of the things you'll find anywhere across the UK, it seems to be constant is about one 30 ish things start to close down for lunch. They close the kitchen. The bar will be open. You can grab a beer or anything like that, but
they won't have food again until dinner. we told ourselves we better go find something to eat.
And so we came across this restaurant that was called The Lookout and it was at the Salt House Hotel. And when we got in there, this definitely seems to be as much of a local spot as it is for people that are staying there at the hotel. Yeah. And I also think this place probably maybe it being Sunday, they were serving all day. this was up on a hill and overlooked kind of the ocean. We asked this.
if we could sit maybe by the window and they were like, those tables are already booked. but yeah, definitely seemed to be a lot of local people there. And I said, ⁓ this would actually be a really great place to stay. Like for us, it didn't work out. We had other things that we wanted to do and we wanted to be closer to kind of our next stop, but they have like a salt spa there and it just looked really modern. They had some cottages there, just like a really cute place to stay.
Yeah, I think I would definitely go back there and stay at some point.
So we're going to leave there and we're going to start to now make our way to the Giant's Causeway.
And we had seen pictures of these basalt columns that really look almost otherworldly And what it is is there's myths about giants building them and so I think that's almost kind of as fun as the geology but When you stand and look they're like these geometric patterns in the the rocks
that have formed there. Yeah, so the ones that aren't broken off they're like columns. The ones that are broken off, it almost looks like tile, right? When you're standing on them, it almost looks like it's pieces of, what would they be like? Like octagons. Yeah, tile. And so it's just really, really neat. Now, here's another thing about this.
By the time we got there, we tried to pull in the parking lot and she was like, the parking lot's closed. And I saw that whatever they had, the Giant's Causeway experience, it was already gonna be closed. She said, you can get on the road and there's some parking. And I'm actually glad that it worked out that way. And so I would highly recommend, I mean, unless you just need to or want to take the bus they have and listen to the different...
audio, they have like audio guides that you can listen along the way and they have like a visitor's experience in the visitor center. And of course we were too late for that. And like I said, I was really glad that we were. We ended up walking down right as really things were starting to clear out. I think the last few buses were leaving and granted there were still people there.
And so then after we like looked around because you can walk out to the different places, you can scramble up on the different formations on some of them. I would just say wear waterproof and sturdy shoes because it's gonna be wet. The tides are gonna be affected here but then it also rained on us while we were there. We actually walked through and noticed that you could actually go back a different way. You could get closer to a different, you said that was.
Some of the formation was called the cathedral, right? I think it was called like the stove pipes or chimney pipe, something like that. OK. But you could go back a different way. And we had seen from where we were at the visitor center, there was a blue trail and a red trail. And so that just gave us an opportunity to almost make a loop back to the parking.
and even be able to take a shortcut. We saw a sign to where you could go through a gate that was almost like through somebody's farm. But there was a sign saying, okay, here's how you get back to this particular parking spot. This is all run by the National Trust. So we did have to pay for parking. We're supposed to pay for parking. We used the app and paid for it. But I think in the end, I mean, I'm glad that we were there too late and didn't spend money on.
trying to do the experience because you can go down there without, having to pay. Yeah, I think the funniest thing was after the closing time of the museum up top, probably about 30 minutes after closing, all of a sudden we started seeing cars driving all the way down to this area because it is, it's a long walk down to get to the formations. But people were like, man.
Why are we the only people that, park down here? So I don't know that I would recommend it, but it is an option out there for you. Yeah. So again, if you want to be like with the lesser crowds, I would say go later in the afternoon. think the last entry for that experience was at like 4 20. And I know those buses stopped running about five o'clock, but if you have mobility issues and need that,
Be sure to get there earlier in the day. It's just the later that you go the less the crowds are going to start coming out.
So we made our way to the hotel. were staying in a town called Port Rush on Sunday evening. And there was one last place that was on our list of places to photograph. And it was on the way. So there's this scenic road that's called the Causeway. And it goes along the ocean. And when we got there, we pulled into the parking.
and the sign said that it was closed and all of a sudden like this beautiful sunshine just came out of nowhere. The skies opened up, they were blue. You know, we've had kind of overcast and rainy weather up until this point, which I'm not complaining about because I've said multiple times, I keep going to all these locations expecting and wanting a little bit cooler, maybe a little bit misty.
Conditions and it's always just beautiful and sunny You know kind of the sunshine travelers joke that we always make but in this particular case we got there right at the golden hour and It was closed, but the Sun was coming directly at us and so we're trying to photograph it from a distance It wasn't working out very well So we got back in the car and decided to drive on down the coast a little bit
And just, you know, three quarters of a mile away, there was this overlook that looks back down towards the castle. So we get there and I'm crazy because we're there at the perfect time of day. We've got perfect light conditions. It's got blue skies and the way that the sunshine was on this, you know, these castle ruins.
was absolutely phenomenal. And, of course I had my zoom lens and so we were able to get some really good pictures. And even if you looked back the opposite way, they had these cliffs that I would say.
from a beauty perspective, they almost measured up with the Cliffs of Mohr And I think in this case, it was literally because you had a little bit of sunshine, the water was just clear to where it had this beautiful blue when we visited the Cliffs of Mohr years ago. I mean, it was very cloudy and so, you you want some of that weather, but having a blue sky just
takes pictures to a whole different level is the thing. Yeah. And so I think that's kind of going to go into our bucket list memories, if you will, of places that we just happened to be at the right place at the right time. And it was almost this just magically beautiful experience being there.
Which was kind of funny because we were very disappointed when we pulled up and it said that the park or whatever was closed. Yeah, and it wasn't like we really need to go in these places just because I mean it is ruins and so there's not really anything to go into, but it was just the vantage point that we had. And again, it's hard to know, are these places open? Are they closed? When are they going to be open?
⁓ This one in particular did close at five. So yeah, I think we just got really, really lucky. And the other thing I was going to say is you had actually looked some of the things that you wanted to stop at were from a photography standpoint, right? You had saved some pictures of different things to kind of know, what we were looking for. And a lot of those are like, go early in the morning when the sunrise or go at golden hour. And we literally had had clouds.
Since we pretty much arrived And so that would just made it all the more rewarding
So we got into the town of Port Rush and we're staying at a hotel called the Marcus. It's a hotel by Hilton, but it has very much a boutique hotel feel to it. And Melissa just absolutely fell in love with the color scheme that they had used throughout and some of the decorations were things that she's kind of used.
in some of our places but we asked because not only did they stop serving lunch at a certain time they also stopped serving dinner at a certain time and it was getting close to that time of day where they stopped serving dinner so we asked for some recommendations at the hotel and she had told us you better hurry because they're going to close the kitchen soon.
and this is just a really neat seaside town. So it's a beach destination. They have beaches, but they have like a marina. And so like some of the stores like sold beach things and you can tell people go there for holidays. They have what they call these holiday parks.
⁓ all around like little holiday houses for people to rent. So it really is like a vacation area. And we have never had the opportunity to experience a seaside town anywhere in the UK. So it was a special, treat for us. But then also this where they've obviously taken like almost a historic hotel and turned it into a boutique hotel. So it was, it was great. We ended up walking down.
to where the of the Marina area was and she recommended a few places. And I will say, even though she said they'll close at nine, you need to be there at half eight, we went in at 8.15 and the girl's like, oh no, I'm sorry, we're already closed. She did recommend, thank goodness there was a pub next door that was still serving food, had live music. So it actually worked out perfectly, but we couldn't have waited much longer.
And so for all of our golfers that are listening, Port Rush actually was the home of the 2025 British Open. And there were a lot of people that were there in Port Rush. Like there was a group of Americans sitting at a table near us and I don't know, probably 12 or more people. And you could tell they must have been there on a golf trip. But one of the things that
we learned on this trip is a friend of ours, Allie, she sent me a note and she said, you got to split the G while you're there. I had no idea what that meant. And so I looked it up and to split the G is you order a pint of Guinness and when it's served to you, you drink it until the foam in the beer line
evenly splits the G in the Guinness logo on the glass and so We've got this thing on this trip where eventually one of us is going to split the G I got really close At that hotel on his first try Yeah, my first try Melissa's on her third try fourth one coming up She gets really to the top of the G but
I think she knows what she's got to do. It's just that one last little sip that you know and you got to do this all in one sip. You can't do multiple sips. It's all got to be in one. But just something unique and different that we learned about and so we're going to try to get this figured out this week while we're here in Ireland.
So let's talk a little bit about Monday. This is going to start a different pattern for us because I'm going to try to work this week. And like I said, I'm working East Coast hours, which gives us a good time in the mornings it's good timing for photos. There's not a lot of tourists out that early in the mornings.
And so we've got a lot of time to go to these places and kind of be there to ourselves. Or if so, there's like people out walking dogs, But now we're going to work those different hours. And so it's really going to start to change the way that we visit and see the sites around us this week. So the other thing I wanted to mention, we talked about changing our plans on Saturday when we came in and doing something different.
Honestly, when we sat down to breakfast, we had some ideas in our mind about what we were going to do. And but not till then did we kind of consolidate that. And I think that's probably the cool thing. There's so many places that you can stop and so many things that you can see is that you are going to have to pick and choose. So we had a few things on our list. We spent a long time at the first one. So we really only got to that one. And that was driving just a few miles down the road and stopping at
Musandin Temple, which is perched right on the cliffside. I had read that it's actually one of the most photographed places in Northern Ireland. And I think we should mention that too. So we landed in Dublin, we drove to Belfast, which you drive into Northern Ireland.
So I had actually read, it it talked about like where she'd park and all kinds of stuff. But the main parking area, which is Lions Gate was actually closed when we drove by, but we had already passed like another one where I had seen people parking there. So we ended up turning around and finding a place to park and it was just, you the gate was open. So this is another national trust property. It was free to get in.
there were trails through the woods and the gardens if you went this way. If you were able to park at Lion's Gate, you're actually closer to the house. But it wasn't a very far walk. And again, like Scott mentioned, the sunshine, so it just absolutely made it a beautiful walk. I think this was probably shortly after nine o'clock when we got there. And so again, it really just felt like another hidden gem. There were like handful of people.
Most of the people seem like locals out for their morning walk, a lot of dogs. And so it just was a phenomenal way to get some exercise in this morning. Yeah, and there were some ruins there. It was interesting because Melissa read a sign and was telling about it, is that this house that was built in, I think, the 1700s, it stayed...
kind of around and intact until about the 1940s. And then in the 1940s, you know, it started changing hands. And then, you know, the owners weren't taking care of it as well. And it kind of fell into a state of disrepair. And so today all that's left are like the stone walls and things of that nature. And eventually it will, it will continue to
fall into further disrepair, because it is right there on the seaside. But it was a really neat place to go. You walk through this pasture really, and they have cut paths into the pasture, like literally mowed a lower path in the grass for you to walk through. And one of the things they do is,
in their commitment to preserving this place is that they use livestock like cows and sheep to actually maintain the grasses and the pastures around this house. And so you can see they've got it kind of set up where the farmer can bring their cows into there. They can string up the electric wiring.
and they do have signs like don't touch the wires, but they can string up their electric wire, put the cattle into a certain area and let them graze and take care of that pasture land. That's the other thing that I just love about Ireland, UK too, and Ireland is that like they make use of all the property. And so even when we were at the castle the day before, like way up on the ridge top, like you could see these cows.
I mean, same thing here, right? use it to maintain, but they just make use of like all the land. And so you'll walk through gates, right? That'll say, I mean, I think at home, it would seem weird to us, this is somebody's property, you can't go on, but there's gates that are say like, please close the gate. There's instructions about, when dogs need to be on leads and when you can let them run free, which is also very common in the UK to have places that dogs can just run.
And I just loved that. So you would go through the different gates. But then there was also like, it's almost like choose your own adventure trail too. I mean, not free range of the whole thing, but minus where the cows were, could take different paths around this property. So we went from like almost the mausoleum to where the house ruins were to this Musandin temple and then around and.
back around in the woodlands and in the gardens and so it's just absolutely beautiful property.
So we left from there. did want to stop on the weekends. Saturday, my boots, my walking boots, hiking boots, something happened to the inside of one of them. And it's right on the heel And so it created a blister spot. But those boots are trash now, because it'll do it every time.
And so one of things I wanted to do is replace it well stores are closed on Sunday Pretty much ubiquitously across the UK and so this morning. I wanted to do that on our drive in and So we stopped and just did a little bit of shopping Melissa you Tell what you had to shop for
Yeah. So I ended up needing the raincoat. I debated about all these different jackets I was going to bring and Scott laughed at me because when it was raining pretty heavy yesterday, I was like, my jacket is soaked and he was like, isn't a raincoat? And I was like, well, it looks kind of like a raincoat, but it wasn't super waterproof. mean, it dried out, but so while he was shot, don't think it was right. was waterproof. It's not waterproof at all. I mean, know what I mean? Like when I say it looks like a raincoat, like it's like a trench coat, which is so silly because I have all these other jackets, but.
I said, well, I need a different black rain jacket to go with my boots. yeah. So anyhow, we did a little bit of shopping and then headed on to the hotel. And so we'll pick this back up in another episode and take you through the rest of trip. But we wanted to give you a few takeaways from these first days. so I'll start.
My takeaway is don't be tempted to go and sleep on your first day. Get outside, get moving, and that will help you fight jet lag. We use FlyKit when we travel. It's a combination of supplements and
schedule that tells you when to sleep, when to eat, when to take these supplements. It really works. I've used it on a lot of long haul flights now and I don't ever seem to suffer from jet lag anymore. But that would be my recommendation. Yeah, because if you go and go to sleep, that's where the jet lag is going to get caught.
Is because then you're gonna wake up in the middle and I and then your schedule is gonna be your body is gonna be confused Yeah, you've got to get adjusted to that as quickly as possible Melissa what's your recommendation? So I would say definitely use the concierge or the front desk and ask for Recommendations ask for hidden gems, see if you can get a reservation
That has worked great for us, you know, the past two nights. It helped us find places that we otherwise wouldn't have found. They were both very busy, very popular. And then I think we both agree with leave time for detours. when you see something that's interesting and you want to pull off, pull off and do it and just make sure that your schedule is flexible enough. Sometimes these end up being the best parts of a trip.
Yeah, and I would say about that too is especially on your first day, depending on how you feel. And so we have kind of said our rule of thumb now is don't try to book a tour. Don't try to like get to a city and or get to a place and you've immediately got to go on a tour because not only might you be delayed or it takes longer to get through immigration or ⁓ your suitcase is hacked in half, and there's no handle on it. You've got to like deal with that and like mentally.
just get things sorted it's gonna be nicer for you to be flexible to Decide what what do I feel like doing what what do I want to do instead of I've already booked the store. I've got to feel forced into this now and since this is a destination And we talked about having to stop and do a little bit of shopping Let's give a quick set of packing tips as well. Okay, so
raincoat that actually repels rain. So thankfully I needed a black one. But definitely hiking and waterproof shoes. So I did bring those, a pair that I have not gotten to use very much for the waterproof, a black pair of hunter boots that I take to London every time and it never rains. So those have have come in handy. I don't know that they're as great for hiking as my other ones would be, but definitely some kind of
Almost like it doesn't have to be hiking hiking but really walking You know walking shoes. I think that's what you're gonna need here. And thankfully they do have kind of some treads on the bottom of them You're definitely gonna want to dress in layers We've gone through where we needed to put more layers on we've gone through or we need to take layers off You know raincoat on raincoat off. So you're definitely gonna want those layers
And the other thing I would say about that is don't judge like what you should be dressing like with what the locals. So like, you know, we're from Florida, we're used to like really hot. So this probably feels colder where we've seen people in shorts and short sleeves and going out to dinner the other night, I'm all bundled up and these girls have on their, going out evening stuff, I would be freezing to death. So dress in something that's going to be comfortable.
But you're right, we've gone from taking off sweaters, taking off jackets. I have probably the only one here stock and cap, Yeah, you're definitely going to want a camera here. And you know, don't worry if you don't have a DSLR camera make sure to bring your iPhone because you're going to want to take tons of pictures. It is just that gorgeous,
The challenge is always can I capture what I see on my phone, or in any picture for that matter. And so you want that camera. I said walking sticks are not a bad idea. So I ordered a collapsible walking stick.
The truth is, it's kind of a hidden dual purpose stick. It's actually a monopod for my camera. So I can unscrew the end and then screw that into my camera to help steady my camera with the long lens on it. But I did use it just as a walking stick when we went down to the basalt columns. And it just gives you a little extra stability.
especially in those uneven terrains. And by the way, you can fly on the plane with these. We had a couple who stopped you when we were actually waiting for the flight to Dublin in New York and they were like, you can take that with you. And they were like, well, that's a dumb question because you got through TSA with it.
But they were saying, maybe we should have gotten them and we're just going to buy some when we get there. They did take yours and look through it and inspect it a little bit further. But yeah, you can, bring these with you. People who do walking trips all over the world. So just know that you can. And if you don't want to have, like you mentioned, it would have been hard for us to find a place because of when we did arrive, right? Unless we had gone immediately to a store.
So I would say, you bring them with you, pack them. And they have collapsible ones. Yeah. Go to Costco. We saw a whole set of them at Costco for like 10 bucks or something like that. And then lastly, I think you definitely want to have a backpack to carry with you. You want to have your hands free when you're doing these hikes. So put your water bottle down in there, put, camera, put those layers that you want to take off and put on.
and throw those in a backpack. So I think that that's what we would recommend for a packing list.
Well, those first few days have given us a little bit of everything. We've got kind of a touch of nature, of history, some great food, and even some Irish traditions. So I think it really sets the tone for the rest of our trip. We can't wait to share with you more about our time in Letterkenny, which is in Donegal, and Derry, and beyond. We're hoping to hit up some more national park areas. And then by the next weekend, which is funny, we
actually don't have plans and we don't even know where we're going to stay before we head back because we really want to leave ourselves open for what haven't we done that we've been wanting to go do. So I'm excited about that. Well remember the world is full of sunshine and surprises. Make 2025 the year to explore beyond the familiar.
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